Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to social computing and, in particular, to social connection via real-time image comparison.
Description of the Related Art
People are often looking for ways to connect with one another based on shared interests, serendipity, and so forth. With respect to photos, sometimes a person takes a picture, and there is no one available to talk with about it right at that moment. Thus, the person might manually send the picture to a friend and wait for their response, but not get that response for hours or days (if ever). If the picture is of critical importance, the person might make a video call to share the picture in real time, but this is difficult to do on today's phones. Similarly, the possible recipient of an image may be uninterested, busy, and so forth. However, there is currently no system or service available to enable users to anonymously communicate, in real-time, instantly, based on just the similarity of a photo they took to a photo taken by someone else.